Cassowarry
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ID#18
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Classification: Aves
Endangered Status: Vulnerable Habitat: Tropical Rainforests The Southern Cassowary has a stiff, black plumage, and blue face and neck, but red on the back of the neck, or the nape. It has two red wattles measuring around 18 centimeters in length hanging down from its throat. It has a horn-like brown casque, that measures to about 13-17 cm high, sits on its head. Its bill can range from 10 cm to 19 cm. It has three toed very powerful and thick feet, equipped with a lethal dagger-like claw up to 12 cm on the inner toe. Females have a larger bill, longer casque and brighter-colored bare parts. The juveniles have brown long longitudinal striped plumage. Southern Cassowaries are the biggest bird in its family, and at maximum size estimated to be 85 kg, and about 190 cm. They range from 127-170 cm in length, and are normally 1.5-1.8 meters tall. Females average 58.5 kg and males average 29-34 kg. The Southern Cassowary forages on the forest floor for fruit and is capable of safely digesting some fruits toxic to other animals. They also eat fungi, and some insects and small vertebrates. Cassowaries are diurnal. They are solitary birds, and only pair in breeding season. The breeding season for Southern Cassowaries starts in May or June. They make a booming call during mating season, and chicks will make a frequent high-pitched whistle to call for the male. Females lay three to eight large, dark bright green or pale green-blue eggs in each clutch into a prepared heap of leaf litter. These eggs measure about 9 by 14 centimeters. The female does not care for the eggs or the chicks but moves on to lay eggs in the nests of several other males. The male incubates the eggs for 50–52 days, removing or adding litter to regulate the temperature, then protects the brown-striped chicks, who stay in the nest for about nine months, defending them fiercely against all potential predators, including humans. The young males then go off to find a territory of their own. A few fun facts about Southern Cassowaries are that they can run up to 50 kilometers per hour, and the only bird eggs bigger than one of a Cassowary is an Ostrich or Emu’s egg. There are more than 2,000 Southern Cassowaries in Northeastern Australia, but the numbers are declining. Cassowaries are of the family Casuariidae, and closely related to the kiwis in the family Apterygidae, with these two bird families diverging from a common ancestor 40,000,000 years ago. |